Port Malabar Students In Top 10 As National Recyclers

A Noteworthy Mission

Company representatives join administrators and teachers from Port Malabar Elementary School in celebrating their participation in the Dream Machine Recycle Program. (Image courtesy Brevard Public Schools)

BREVARD COUNTY • PALM BAY, FLORIDA – Representatives from Pepsi and Waste Management were on hand to celebrate Port Malabar Elementary School’s success in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally™ contest for the 2011-12 school year.

Dignitaries, students, staff and community supporters gathered on Friday to mark the school’s tremendous accomplishment of placing in the national top ten participating schools, earning $6,000 in funding awards.

Port Malabar Elementary School has been recycling as part of the school’s community involvement for more than two years.

Staff and students joined in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally™ early in the school year to further student awareness and for a chance to earn money that could be used to enhance green projects around the school.

Community support, 30 corporate business partners, fellow Brevard County schools, teachers, staff, students and families joined in to recycle more than 1.3 million containers throughout the contest.

Port Malabar Elementary School went on to earn $3,000 for achieving 3rd place in the nation for the last trimester and $3,000 for being in the top 10 participating schools for average recycles per student.

In all, school volunteers logged more than 10,000 volunteer hours on recycling alone.

“What a wonderful collaboration between students, teachers, administration, staff, families, and community to make a difference,” said Port Malabar principal Cindy Whalin. “We are proud of our recycle coordinator, Robyn Emison, and her efforts to educate our students on the value of recycling and caring for our environment.”

The Dream Machine Recycle Rally™ is one pillar of the Dream Machine program, which is a multi-year collaboration between Pepsi, Waste Management and Keep America Beautiful.

Through this joint venture, thousands of recycling bins and kiosks are made available in popular public venues. The Dream Machine program is designed around Pepsi’s goal of creating strategic partnerships to help increase the U.S. beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018.